MA Leadership, Concentration Design

Program Description

The 36-credit Masters of Arts in Leadership helps individuals develop a leadership mindset and the complex skill-sets needed for leaders in communities and high-performance organizations engaged in today’s fast-changing contexts of change. Designed around a distance-delivery model, this MA can be taken by on-campus participants as well as participants at a distance. It is intended to integrate well with other leadership programs in the department or university, and serves as a bridge to both the undergraduate leadership program and the doctoral leadership program.

The participants’s program can be adapted to varying personal, organizational, or regional contexts. Recent college graduates transitioning into employment who want to further their leadership development as well as experienced employees who want to target specific areas of leadership for development will find the design of this program flexible to meet their leadership needs.

The overall goal of the MA Leadership program is to develop leaders with a strong sense of personal mission, the ability to work in teams, and experience in leading change that can provide better services and professional solutions in varied local, regional and global situations.

Participants work with their advisors to develop a personalized Leadership & Learning Plan (LLP) integrated with a schedule of courses. They have two options: the job-embedded design or the “core + concentration” design.

The job-embedded design is created with an official Andrews University partner organization to attract a cohort of professionals who want to work together to develop competencies useful for their organization or region. Competencies are developed and documented in a digital or hardcopy portfolio, and presented to a faculty panel.

The “core + concentration” design allows individuals to work at their own pace to develop a specific set of competencies that are aligned with their area of concentration and specific areas of leadership development. Both designs require 36 credits and the completion of a portfolio and research work.

Program Delivery

The MA in Leadership is typically an interactive online program (see School of Distance Education Definitions) unless it is offered as a cohort-based program. The online courses follow fixed enrollment with semester start and end dates. All participants interact with each other and the instructor throughout all courses. They are also part of a learning group which meets regularly for mutual support and accountability, and to engage in significant sharing and evaluation of learning related to competency development. The online program requires two-week on-campus attendance in the first year; and at least one-week on-campus attendance in subsequent years for the annual Leadership Conference and Roundtable and other planned learning events designed to support participants in specific areas of their program (e.g.: research boot camps). These support events are often organized in connection with the Annual Conference. Students are also encouraged to come to campus for graduation.

Portfolio Requirement

All MA in Leadership programs require the development, presentation and successful approval of a portfolio that documents leadership proficiency in 8-10 areas of leadership.

Those in the “core + concentration” must select competencies required in their concentration that align with the Department of Leadership competencies. To facilitate portfolio development participants must register for one of the following courses: EDAL/LEAD 680, LEAD675, or LEAD696.

The job-embedded concentration requires competencies set by their cohort.

The Creativity and Innovation concentration requires the development of an innovative leadership project as their portfolio.